


Misunderstanding

by Chatterbox



Category: Hit the Floor (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-26
Updated: 2016-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-23 10:04:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6113099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chatterbox/pseuds/Chatterbox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zude oneshot inspired by a Tumblr post (see the end of the fanfic).<br/>Jude is acting strangely, and Zero gets isecure because of it.</p><p>This summary is the worst summary I've ever written, but I don't want to give out too much, so I hope you will read despite my dreadful summarising skills.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Misunderstanding

“Hey guys” 

Zero arrived in the locker-rooms after all his teammates. In his defence, it was not his fault. He was going to be on time, but then Jude walked out of the shower with nothing more than a towel to hide his modesty and, well, let’s say that he had gotten carried away. He could not help himself when it came to him and his wonderful body. He bit his lip subconsciously as he recalled the great sex that had occurred, before he realised he had not moved for… he didn’t know how long exactly but it was far too long for it not to be suspicious, and he had to start undressing. 

He was too preoccupied by his wandering thoughts to realise that many of his teammates had answered his greeting cautiously, or not at all. However, he could not ignore their awkward attitude for very long once their training session had started. They kept throwing worried glances his way and it almost looked like they were avoiding contact with him during the mock match. Zero had the impression he had done something wrong, but he had no idea what, and he hated it. 

He would have had to yell to get everyone’s attention if he wanted an explanation, since everyone was avoiding him, so he said nothing. 

The atmosphere became even tenser when the other players saw Jude waiting for Zero outside the locker-room. Zero saw them throwing him dirty looks and had to refrain the protective side of him from bursting through… he had to wait for a while before making a scene again, or he would get a reputation. He went to Jude and kissed him lightly on the lips. 

“Hey” Jude greeted him, without looking at him in the eyes. 

Okay, this day was becoming ridiculous. What the fuck was wrong with them all? What had Zero done this time? 

“Something bothering you?” Zero asked, crossing his arms over his chest, almost challenging Jude to tell him he had done something wrong. He had been on his best behaviour for the last few days, and he’d be damned if Jude denied it.

Jude’s eyes widened, but he quickly hid his surprise, pretended nothing was out of the ordinary. Bullshit, if you asked Zero. 

“Me? No… What about you? Something is bothering you?” 

“You’re acting weird Jude” Zero told him calmly. 

“No, I’m not.” 

Zero wanted to protest, but he knew Jude could be stubborn as hell when he wanted too, and it seemed like one of these days, so he let it go. 

“Fine, let’s go home then…” 

Once they were back to Jude’s flat, everything somehow went back to normal, and Zero almost ended up believing he had imagined all the signs pointing to something being out of place sooner that day. 

They were eating takeout on the couch and Zero was finally starting to relax, but it was ruined when he had a sudden realisation: 

“You haven’t asked me how training went…” 

Jude always asked him how training went, because he was a considerate and caring person, quite prompt to make a fuss over Zero if he was not feeling well (which Zero would never admit to loving, even though he did). 

“Oh… didn’t I?” 

What was it with him answering questions with questions of his own tonight? 

“Well, how did training go?” 

“It was weird” Zero answered, watching Jude’s reaction closely. Zero knew he hadn’t made the strangeness up when his boyfriend kept his eyes fixed on his noodles as he replied in a nervous tone:

“Oh… why’s that?” 

“The guys weren’t as usual… they kept looking at me funny… and they were avoiding me too, I’m pretty sure of it. Also, they looked at you funny too, almost as if they were mad at you” Zero answered honestly, still waiting Jude to really react, instead of staring at his food as if he hadn’t seen anything more interesting in his life. 

If Jude kept on refusing to pay attention to Zero, he could try getting naked: this usually worked. But he was tired, and he hadn’t finished his own noodles, so it would have to wait. 

“Jude, are you even listening to me?” 

Jude looked at Zero fleetingly, back to staring at his food in the blink of an eye. 

“S-sure I’m listening… I’m sure everything will be fine… You’ve been through a lot lately, with the press harassing you about your coming-out, maybe… maybe you’re misinterpreting things.” 

Zero frowned. He did not like where this was going at all. Jude was the one acting weird with him, and if he thought he could make Zero believe it was the other way around, he was badly mistaken. 

“That’s bullshit… I know what I saw… And you know who’s acting weird too?” Zero didn’t give Jude the time to answer, “You are”. 

He put his food on the table and got up. 

“What are you doing?” 

“I’m going to bed” Zero answered, walking to Jude’s room. Sleeping in your boyfriend’s room was not the most obvious way of making the said boyfriend understand that you were mad at him… but Zero wasn’t mad to the point of going back to his giant and empty flat (especially if he took the journalists who would surely be surrounding it into consideration). 

“But… you haven’t finished your food…” Jude called out, sounding more confused than if he had just seen Zero and Derek act like best buds. Then again, he had a reason to be confused: Zero was always famished after playing. 

“I’m not hungry anymore.” 

That was a dramatic exit if Zero had ever seen one: he sounded cold and disappointed, which was what he was aiming for. He was hoping that his acting skills would get Jude to follow him and finally explain why he was not being himself. Sadly, this didn’t happen. 

Zero fell asleep without Jude by his side, after hours of tossing. In the morning when he woke up, Jude had already left the bed, which had Zero’s stomach churning. He couldn’t yet put his finger on what his impending feeling of dread was, exactly, but he hoped he would never find out. Sadly, his wish was not granted, once again. As the day went on, he barely saw Jude, even though he usually spent the day with him before matches, and when he did see him, he was acting as strange as the day before. 

A plaguing doubt invaded Zero’s mind, and needless to say that Zero wasn’t used to it. He had built such a cocky character for himself that he barely ever doubted anything… But that was before Jude barged in in his life and started trying to make Gideon emerge. As it turned out, Jude was making a pretty good job of it, and Gideon was far more insecure than Zero was. And then, Zero started to think that Jude might want to break up with him. He didn’t want to believe it… but it was the only thing that made sense to him. Why else would he be behaving so weirdly? 

That did not explain why the other players were acting weird though… 

He tried his best to distract himself from his gloomy thoughts, knowing he would never be able to focus on the game that night if he didn’t. But, apparently, nothing would go his way, and he kept fretting over it, wondering where Jude was and why he wanted to get rid of him. Yes, he was overanalysing the events, but a relationship was a new concept to him, and a happy one was even more so. He didn’t even think it existed a few weeks ago, so it was to be expected that he would freak out for every little problem coming his way. 

When the match started that night, he tried hard to get into the game, but he failed miserably and was subbed off quickly by the coach. He sulked on the bench, barely paying attention to what was happening on the court. 

***  
“Don’t you think you’ve dragged this on long enough? Look at him, he looks like a kicked puppy” Lionel told Jude as Zero got subbed off. 

Jude, who looked as miserable as Zero, if not more, chewed on his bottom lip worriedly. 

“I’m a horrible boyfriend”. 

“You’re not, but if you don’t tell him soon, I might change my mind”. 

Jude sighed. 

“You’re right… I’ll talk to him first thing after the game”. 

Lionel seemed satisfied with his answer, and Jude watched the rest of the game half-heartedly, looking more often than not at Zero, sitting on the bench with his head down. 

When the final whistle blew, Jude was reluctant to move, but Lionel almost dragged him to the locker room, and they arrived shortly after the players.

A wave of protests hit them as Lionel entered the room with Jude. She knew perfectly well she wasn’t supposed to come in, but she suspected Jude would not have come in if he hadn’t been given a push in the right direction… a physical push. 

Jude was surprised, to say the least, when he noticed Zero was nowhere to be seen. 

“Where’s Zero?” 

“Why would you want to know? Want to make him even more miserable?” One of the players asked with hostility. 

“What do you mean?” 

“We told him you cheated on him, what more do you want with him?” The same guy replied. 

“Shit…” Jude muttered, not bothering to explain himself before bolting from the room. What he had been dreading had happened, and now he had to find Zero as soon as possible. He had a lot of explaining to do. 

He was afraid for a second that Zero was already gone God knows where, but he then remembered that, fortunately, he had drove him there so Zero couldn’t go anywhere. He could have taken a cab, but people were not totally over with harassing him about his sexuality, so there was little chance he would have risked doing that… especially if he was depressed. 

Fuck, Jude was feeling awful. 

He found Zero sitting on the bench, as he had been during the match, still in his basketball kit. The only difference was the bag beside him. Oh, and the emptiness of the arena, of course. When he heard footsteps, he looked up like a deer caught in the headlights. When he realised they were Jude’s, however, his expression changed into a mix of bitterness and sadness. 

“What do you want?” He asked, not sounding like himself at all. His voice was trembling, and when Jude was close enough, he noticed that Zero’s eyes were suspiciously shiny, and he felt even guiltier then before. 

“I need to talk to you, it’s important…”

“You came to break up with me? Well, don’t bother, I got the message pretty clearly” Zero said, bitterness winning him over for a moment. 

“No… you didn’t get it clearly… not at all… What did the guys tell you exactly?” Jude asked him, sitting next to him on the bench. 

“They told me about you sexting that guy…” Zero mumbled, not looking at Jude. 

“And, didn’t you ask who that guy was?” 

“As if I want to know who you’re screwing me over with…” 

Okay, Jude could have solved Zero and he’s problems far quicker, by saying he had not cheated on him first of all. But, to be honest, dragging it on was his retaliation for Zero believing Jude could do something this terrible to him. As if he would cheat on his boyfriend, whom he loved more than he had ever loved anyone before. Jeez, Jude was supposed to be the insecure one. 

“Well, if you had asked, they would have told you about the guy I was sexting. He can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but he thinks about me first all the time, he’s the only one who makes me feel normal, and I love him. Also, he’s amazingly hot, which I’m certainly not complaining about. So, now you know. You know about Gideon.” 

Jude could see Zero’s expression change from anger to realisation to shock, and he couldn’t help but smile. 

“But… I… I…” 

“One of the guys heard Lionel yelling at me the other day because she had seen the texts I send to you and thought I was cheating on you… because I put your number under the name Gideon on my phone. I explained things to her, but the guy in question didn’t stick around for that and had to go and run his mouth to the rest of the team…” Jude explained, feeling a bit sheepish. 

Zero was speechless for a few seconds, and then he asked: 

“And… why didn’t you go and explain yourself to the guys before I started believing all this bullshit?” 

“Well… I know you don’t want people to know your real name… so…” 

“Seriously Jude?! I prefer people knowing my real name than having them believe my boyfriend, who everyone knows I’m head over heels for since… you know… I came out for him, is cheating on me. Especially if I start thinking so myself.” 

“Yeah, about that… How could you believe this? Think about it for one second, Gideon… I love you. You know that, right?” 

Now it was Zero’s turn to look sheepish. 

“I know… I know… But, at that moment, I was not sure of anything anymore. It sounds stupid now but…” 

Jude put his hand on Zero’s thigh, as Zero had done what felt like ages ago, when they were in the limo, and told him: 

“It’s okay… you got scared. Insecurity can get the best of everyone, you know, even you” 

They stayed silent for a while after that. 

“We were both stupid” Zero finally said. “But especially you…” he chuckled. 

“I can agree to that.” Jude replied with a smile. “So, we’re alright now?” 

Zero turned on the bench to look at him in the eyes. “Sure we are”, he answered before leaning in for a kiss. He knew he had kissed Jude yesterday, but he had started missing it already. 

Jude kissed back wholeheartedly, but he still broke the kiss too soon to Zero’s taste. 

“We still have something to discuss…” 

“What is it?” 

“You’ll have to tell your teammates about the ‘Gideon’ thing” 

Zero put his forehead on Jude’s shoulder and groaned. The prospect of letting everyone (because, of course, if his teammates knew, everyone else would know soon, he had no illusion on the matter) know his real name didn’t appeal to him in the least, but he knew he had no choice. 

“Okay… I’ll do that tomorrow…” 

“How do you plan on telling them?” 

“Well I don’t know… it’s not like there are ten options… I’ll go to them and say ‘hey guys, guess what? Turns out Jude wasn’t cheating on me, I’m Gideon’, which is lame but well, this name is lame so it’s fitting, I suppose” Zero replied, annoyed at the mere prospect of having to do that. 

“Mmh… yeah, I guess you could go for the awkward way… I find it somewhat charming. Though, if you want something a bit more bold and dramatic, something more Zero, I might have an idea…” Jude said with a curious glint in his eyes. Zero was very interested in hearing about this idea of his. 

***

When the following training session came up, Zero came into the locker-room and greeted his teammate cheerfully, as if nothing had happened, raising a few eyebrows in doing so. When all eyes were on him, he took his shirt off and put on his brand new jersey. He knew the exact moment when they noticed the name on the back was not Zero anymore, even though he was facing his locker, because all activity stopped around him. 

He wanted to make an impression: mission accomplished, thanks to Jude’s brilliant idea. 

His teammates would probably make fun of him until the end of times because of his name, but this coming out, not unlike the other one, had been done in style, and Zero was damn proud of it. It turned out that, even though Gideon could get quite insecure, he still knew how to be Zero when he felt like it, and he still had the amazing boyfriend he had had the chance to meet when he was still buried so deep in this character he had created that even he couldn’t find the way out. Thankfully, Jude had found the way out for him… And if he had to be called Gideon for the rest of his life for that, well it was fucking worth it. And with Jude by his side, he could wear “Gideon” proudly on the back of his jersey for the rest of his career if he had to.

**Author's Note:**

> AN: this fanfic was inspired by this Tumblr post by @shad0w-madness: “I need a fic where one of the Devil’s hears Jude talking to Zero on the phone or walks pasts his office and hears him say something like, “I love you, Gideon,” or hears him moan Gideon and assumes he’s cheating on Zero. The rest of the team find out and then finally Zero finds out and has to awkwardly explain.” So thanks for the brilliant idea :D (also, he doesn’t really awkwardly explain, because I went for something somehow angsty I guess, so… I hope you like it anyway).  
> Oh, and by the way, I only watch Zude’s parts of the show, so I hope it wasn’t too obvious that I don’t know much about it ^^  
> Finally, I'm not a native English speaker so I hope it was decent. Fe Feel free to point out any mistakes :)
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr: head-in-rainbows (I'm also clumsy-fox, but it's my first blog, and it's supposed to be dedicated to football, even if I got a bit carried away =P).


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